Somerville seeks to regulate Airbnb and other short-term rentals

The following was submitted by Zhuron Du, Yating Zhang and Zimei Zhu of the Boston University News Service.

Like many cities in the area, Somerville has been facing a housing crisis in recent years. Housing prices are rising to the point where working-class families cannot afford to pay their rent. Short-term rentals, like Airbnb, may be partially to blame.

Ward 1 Alderman Matt McLaughlin is drafting an ordinance to regulate short-term rentals, which are defined as a rental of a residential unit, or a bedroom, in exchange for payment and for a duration of less than 30 days.

Currently there are 306 active Airbnb hosts and 610 active rentals in Somerville. Entire home rentals account for 35 percent of all rentals, according to statistics from AIRDNA. The average daily rate is around $194 and there is a fairly high demand for spaces throughout the city.

“You don’t want the entire community to be Airbnb,” said McLaughlin. “You don’t want to see people get displaced. That’s my number one concern.”

To address the issue, McLaughlin proposed an ordinance that would prohibit short-term rentals of an entire unit, requiring the hosts of short-term rentals to live in the same building. For owner-occupied rentals, the hosts need to regularly report to the city about their guests. The process is intended to address safety issues.

McLaughlin said it is important for the city to be informed about who stays in the Airbnb in case of an emergency. In the case of a house fire, the fire department would at least know how many people were in the house and who they were.

Peter Catizone, an Airbnb host, disagrees with McLaughlin’s proposal.

“It’s just between me and the guests, there’s no need to report that,” said Catizone, who rents out one room in his apartment.

For the houses that are used exclusively as Airbnbs, Somerville would tax those hosts and require them to undergo the same inspections as a hotel.

“If you work like a hotel, you are going to be treated like a hotel,” McLaughlin said.

The proposal doesn’t allow five or more unrelated people living in a “dwelling unit,” meaning a portion of a building used as a residence. Only one dwelling unit per building may be used to rent rooms and renters cannot sublet rooms or spaces as short-term rentals.

Most of the contents in McLaughlin’s proposal already exist in Somerville’s short-term rental regulation guidelines, but few people actually comply, he said. That is why McLaughlin wants to make the process a law rather than simple guidelines. Cambridge has a similar ordinance, which is meant to "ensure that short-term rentals will not be a detriment to the character and livability of the surrounding residential neighborhood."

Currently, this proposal is being debated by the Legislative Matters Committee of the Board of Aldermen, but it is not apparent when the final decision will be made.